Printing-form and the art and means for producing same



C. H. GRIFFITH. PRINTING FORM AND THE ART AND MEANS FOR PRODUCING SAME. APPLICATION FILED Aue.26. 1920.

1,376,532. Patented May 3, 1921.

. 2 S HEETSSHEET I.

E z zl {21 I I MMJ Zilillffliiifii 2 1% Nil! 4 Hull [1; In 1 nun C. H. GRIFFITH. PRINTING FORM AND THE ART AND MEANS FOR PRODUCING SAME APPLICATION FILED AUG.26,1920.

1,376,532. at nt d May 3, 1921.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2- MHHHHH W/TNESSES IN V/i/VTOR UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHAUNCEY H. GRIFFITH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO MERGENTHALER LINO- TYPE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

PRINTING-FORM AND THE ART AND MEANS FOR PRODUCING SAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 3, 1921.

Application filed August 26, 1920. Serial No. 406,046.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CHAUNGEY H. GRIF- FITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Printing-Forms and the Art and Means for Producing Same, of which the following is I a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

My invention has reference to the production of printing forms, and while applicable to printing forms generally, it is especially useful in connection with forms intended for tabular work (such as price-lists, timetables, etc.), requiring the employment of printing characters in the form of dots or strokes and known in the trade as leader characters. The presence of these leader characters in the printing form renders the latter unsuitable for immediate printing, because of the perforating action of the leader characters upon the printed sheet.-

For this reason, it has been the practice for many years to resort to certain manipulations of the printing form and press, technically known as making ready. For instance, in presses wherein the form is printed from directly, it is customary as a preliminary matter to make an imprint upon the tympan, and then to cut out one or two thicknesses of the paper at the places where the leader characters'appear so as to obtain a lighter impression upon the printed sheet at such places.

quires considerable skill and the employment of high-priced labor.

My invention is intended to dispense with the foregoing work of making ready and aims to prepare the printing form in such manner that it may be placed in the press and the printing immediately proceeded with. To thisend, I propose to cast type members with the leader characters of less than full type height and with the other printing characters of full type height, so that when such type members are assembled to make up the printing form, the leader characters stand below the general printing surface or level and hence are caused to make a lighter impression upon the printed sheet than the other printing characters. In actual practice this reduction in height of the leader characters is slight although quite This work is exceed ingly slow and time consuming, and resufficient to overcome any tendency on their part to perforate the paper during the printing operation.

While my invention has been designed especially to cure the defects arising in connection with the use of the leader characters, it is of course applicable to other characters as well; and, in fact, it would be advantageous in any case where it is desired to obtain a lighter impression from certain printing characters than from others.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure 1 illustrates a line of linotype matrices constructed in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan or face view of a type bar or slug cast therefrom;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of said type bar or slug and illustrating the difference in height of the printing characters thereon;

Fig. l is a longitudinal section, 'greatly enlarged, taken on the line l.l of F ig. 1, and showing in similar manner a portion of the type bar or slug cast from the included group of matrices;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of two linotype matrices assembled side by side in casting relation, one formed with a letter character and the other with a leader character;

- Fig. 6 is an edge view of two matrices formed with different leader characters;

Fig. 7 is a plan view of a printing form prepared in accordance with my invention; and

Fig. 8 is a side elevation of'a line of separate type embodying my invention.

' In Fig. 7,1 have shown a printing form prepared in accordance with my invention and which is made up of a series of type bars or slugs A bearing on their upper edges figure or letter characters A and leader characters A the latter in one form consisting of round dots and in another form of straight strokes, as customary. As will be noted, some of the slugs bear letter characters A only, others leader characters A only, and still others both letter and leader characters. The letter or figure characters A are of full type height as usual, whereas the leader characters A are of less than full type height for the reasons previously stated. Such variation in height of the printing characters is clearly indicated in Fig. 3 in connection with a slug which bears both kinds of characters. By referring to that figure, it will be observed that the letter and figure characters A being of full type height are flush with the general printing surface as indicated by the dot and dash line, while the leader characters A being of less than full type height, stand below the general printing surface.

The type bars or slugs A making up the above printing form are cast in the well known manner in a regular linotype machine, ordinary matrices X being employed for producing the letter or figure characters A and special matrices Z being employed for producing the leader characters A Thus, as shown in Fig. 5, the matrix X for the letter S is of usual form, being provided on its opposite edges with projecting ears X and in its mold engaging edge with a routing notch X containing in its bottom wall a formative cavity X of the re uired configuration. The matrix Z, for each eader character, is of the same general form, (being provided with projecting ears Z routing notch Z and formative cavity Z and differs from the matrix X only in respect to the depth of its formative cavity. This difference is indicated in Fig. 4, which shows in considerably magnified form several matrices of each kind in casting relation. As will be observed, the formative cavities X are punched in the matrices X with reference to the base line 6, whereas the formative cavities Z are punched in the matrices Z with reference to the base line a, which latter is located nearer to the front or mold-engaging edges of the matrices than the base line 6. Consequently, the letter or figure characters A cast in the formative cavities X rise to the higher level indicated by the line cl (which is the general printing level), while the leader characters A cast in 'the formative cavities Z rise only to the lower level indicated by the line 0.

It will be seen, therefore, that my invention may be carried out in the regular linotype machine merely by the use of the special matrices Z in connection with the regular matrices X, these different matrices being used alone or conjointly according to the matter to be produced. For instance, in the case of a slug bearing a line of letter or figure characters only, as first mentioned,

the regular matrices X will be used alone to produce-it; while, for a slug bearing a line of leader characters only, the special matrices Z alone will be employed. In most instances, however, the leader characters will appear in line with the letter or figure characters, and .in such circumstances, the use of both the regular'and special matrices in the same line will be required. Such a matrix line is shown in Fig. 1, and it is from this line that the slug shown in Figs. 2 and 3 is cast. It will be understood that the matrix line is composed in the regular way and then presented to the mold for the casting of the slug. may be noted that, when desired, the matrix line may be made to include the customary expansiblespacers Y for justifying purposes.

In Fig. 8, I have illustrated a line of separate or individual type B constructed in accordance with my invention, some being cast with letter or figure characters B of full type height, and others with leader characters B of less than full type height. As in the case of the type bars, these separate type members may be cast from matrices having. formative cavities of different depths. For instance, inthe well-known monotype machine, a separate type is cast in a mold against an individual matrix having a formative cavity designed to produce the required printing character on the type body. In adapting my invention to such separate type casting machine, therefore, it is merely necessary to provide special matrices for the leader characters precisely in the same manner as before described in connec- In this connection, it

tion with the linotype matrices herein illusbers in their original or cast condition present their printing characters at varying heights so as to make the required impressions on the printed sheet.

I wish to make it clear that when, in the appended claims, I refer to a printing character of less than full type height, I do not necessarily mean that it of itself must be of less height than the other printing characters, but rather that it stands below the gen- 1 eral printing surface. I make this explanation because it is obvious that the same result might be obtained other than by reducing the depth of the matrix formative cavity wherein it is directly cast. For instance, instead of altering the formative cavity, the routing notch in the matrix might be made shallower to produce the same effect; or, in the case of an individual type, the mold wherein the body portion of the type is cast might be made of less height for that purpose. These and other variations will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art without departure from the scope of my invention.

It may be explained that in practice the difference in height between the letter or figure characters and the leader characters is very slight and only a few thousandths of an inch, this difference being found to be suflicient to overcome the defects and objections before noted. Of course, such difference in height of the leader characters may be varied to any extent desired so long as they are without perforating the printed sheet. It may also be noted that the advantages of my invention will be present whether the printing form prepared in accordance therewith be used in the press for direct printing or for the preparation of stereotype plates and the like such as are employed in rotary presses.

Having thus described my invention, its construction and mode of operation, what I claim is as follows:

1. A type member cast with a printing character of less than full type height.

2. A printing form comprising a series of type members, some cast with printing characters of full type height and others with printing characters of .less than full type height.

3. A type bar or slug cast with a line of printing characters, at least one of which is of less than full type height. I

at. A type bar or slug cast with a line of printing characters, some of full type height and others of less than full type height.

5. A type bar or slug cast with a line of printing characters including letter or fig ure characters and leader characters, the former being of full type height-and the latter of less than full type height, for the purpose described.

6. A type casting matrix having a formative cavity wherein the printing character is cast, the said formative cavity being of such depth as to produce theprinting character of less than full type height.

7.' Two type casting matrices having formative cavities'wherein the printing characters are cast, the formative cavity of one matrix being of sufficient depth to produce the corresponding printing character of full type height, and the formative cavity of the other matrix being of less depth to produce the corresponding printing character of less than full type height.

capable of making a good printing printing forms 8. A matrix line in or for a type bar or slug casting machine having formative cavities wherein the printing characters are cast, at least one of said formative cavities being of such depth as to produce the corresponding printing character of less than full type height.

9. A matrix line in or for a type bar or slug casting machine having formative cavities wherein the printing characters are cast, some of said formative characters being of sufficient depth to produce the corresponding printing characters of full type'height, and others being of less depth to produce the corresponding printing characters of less than full type height.

10. An improvement in ing printing forms, which consists in casting at least one of the type members with a printing characterof less than full type height.

11. An improvement in the art of preparing printingforms, which consists in casting certain type members with printing characters of less than full type height, and other type members with printing characters of full type height.

12. An improvement in the art of preparing printing forms made up of a series of type bars or slugs, which consists in casting at least one of said type bars or slugs with a printing character of less than full type height.

13. An improvement in the art of preparing printing forms made up of a series of type bars or slugs, which consists in casting certain of said type bars or slugs with printing characters of full 'type height, and others of said type bars with printing characters of less than full type height.

14. An improvement in the art of preparfor tabular work, which consists in casting the type members for letters or figures with printing characters of full type height, and the type members for leaders with printing characters of less than full type height.

In testimony whereof, I have affixed my signature hereto.

CHAUNOEY H. GRIFFITH.

the art of prepar- 

